Trick Mirror
Reflection on Self-delusion
by Jia Tolentino, Juan Trejo · first published 2019
75% recommend25% neutral
Why HN recommends it
Essay collection on internet culture, media and self-deception, aimed at readers wanting a modern, youthful take on how online life shapes people; praised as fun, sharp and electrifying prose.
Summarised by Claude from recommending comments
From one of the brightest young chroniclers of US culture comes this dazzling collection of essays on the internet, the self, feminism and politics. We are living in the era of the self, in an era of malleable truth and widespread personal and political delusion. In these nine interlinked essays, Jia Tolentino, the New Yorker's brightest young talent, explores her own coming of age in this warped and confusing landscape. From the rise of the internet to her own appearance on an early reality TV show; from her experiences of ecstasy both religious and chemical to her uneasy engagement with our
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…Waiting for Godot. Reading The Stranger in high school exposed me to so many new and complex ideas. Even extremely recent books like "Something that May Shock and Discredit You" by Daniel M. Lavery or "Trick Mirror" by Jia Tolentino are fascinating works of the modern American Canon. I'm not Polish but I'm sure there are equally relevant works in Polish. If you think kids just prefer to watch a "movie based on…
on “Poland puts computer game “This War of Mine” on school reading list” ↗…Award winner, nonfiction) “Say Nothing: A True Story of Murder and Memory in Northern Ireland,” by Patrick Radden Keefe “Solitary,” by Albert Woodfox “The Topeka School,” by Ben Lerner “Trick Mirror: Reflections on Self-Delusion,” by Jia Tolentino “Trust Exercise,” by Susan Choi (National Book Award winner, fiction) “We Live in Water: Stories,” by Jess Walter
on “Obama lists his favorite books of 2019” ↗…use it vs. a database except for hype.) Anyway, great writer and I'd encourage folks to subscribe. Also a great writer, and this _is_ almost entirely tangential, but also maybe not: Jia Tolentino. "Trick Mirror", her first book of essays, came out yesterday and the first is an accounting of the internet and our collective descent into hell, the subsumption of self through social media, the irreconcilable promise…
on “MoviePass Worked Out Great” ↗…World" https://www.amazon.com/Range-Generalists-Triumph-Specialized... "The Spy and the Traitor: The Greatest Espionage Story of the Cold War" https://www.amazon.com/Spy-Traitor-Greatest-Espionage-Story/... "Trick Mirror: Reflections on Self-Delusion" https://www.amazon.com/Trick-Mirror-Self-Delusion-Jia-Tolent... "Talking to Strangers: What We Should Know about the People We Don't Know" https://www.amazon.com/Talking-Strangers-Should-about-People...…
on “Books on Thinking About Thinking” ↗…Eberhardt. No. 6. "Range: Why Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World" by David Epstein. No. 7. "The Spy and the Traitor: The Greatest Espionage Story of the Cold War" by Ben Macintyre. No. 8. "Trick Mirror: Reflections on Self-Delusion" by Jia Tolentino. No. 9. "Talking to Strangers: What We Should Know about the People We Don't Know" by Malcolm Gladwell. No. 10. "Prediction Machines: The Simple Economics…
on “Books on Thinking About Thinking” ↗…https://www.worldcat.org/title/say-nothing-a-true-story-of-m... 13. Solitary, by Albert Woodfox https://www.worldcat.org/title/solitary/oclc/1105720325 14. The Topeka School, by Ben Lerner https://www.worldcat.org/title/topeka-school/oclc/1126252713 15. Trick Mirror: Reflections on Self-Delusion, by Jia Tolentino https://www.worldcat.org/title/trick-mirror-reflections-on-s... 16. Trust Exercise, by Susan Choi (National Book Award winner, fiction) https://www.worldcat.org/title/trust-exercise/oclc/111435376...…
on “Obama lists his favorite books of 2019” ↗For a more modern and youthful perspective, I'd recommend "Trick Mirror" by Jia Tolentino. It really dives into how chaotic world of internet and media has influenced younger generations.
on “Ask HN: Mind bending books to read and never be the same as before?” ↗Trick Mirror is quite fun. It’s not a particular book, but nothing has more radically altered the way I think about thinking than the work of Theodor Adorno (and to a certain extent, Horkheimer). I had, prior to…
on “Books on Thinking About Thinking” ↗Ha, no worries, wasn't taking a through line in Trick Mirror from what you wrote, but from the excerpts and reviews I've read elsewhere. I feel similarly close to her writing, in a specific way that's a bit electrifying when you initially have the realization of,…
on “MoviePass Worked Out Great” ↗The author of that piece, Jia Tolentino, has a collection of essays called Trick Mirror. This quote pretty aptly describes the transition to the social-media-driven internet: “At ten I was clicking around a web ring to check out other Angelfire sites. At twelve I was writing five hundred…
on “Instagram Face: The rise of selfie make-up and quest for hyper-perfection (2018)” ↗Trick Mirror [1] reference in GP comment. [1] https://www.amazon.com/Trick-Mirror-Self-Delusion-Jia-Tolent...
on “Books on Thinking About Thinking” ↗This comment was triggered by the essay “The Story of a Generation in Seven Scams” by Jia Tolentino in the book Trick Mirror, the essay also being available in audio form online. So the scam here was to get you to google that book, I wonder if my scam will convert anyone?
on “Challenges in the diagnosis of magnesium status” ↗Thank you for the recommendation! I love essay collections and will pick up a copy. I can't say that Trick Mirror is entirely focused, unless you're responding to my description of her prose which very surely is. The opening essay is on the internet, another on drugs and losing faith and finding faith and megachurches…
on “MoviePass Worked Out Great” ↗